Do you find it strange that no Vietnam veteran has ever been elected president?

LTC Ed Ross — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:06:44 -0400

Six World War II veterans served as president of the United States, and that war only lasted five years. Why has no Vietnam veteran ever been elected president when that war lasted nine years?

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 14 at 2015 3:07 PM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:07:48 -0400

.... maybe there are still some kind of negative connection the some people hold on to Vietnam veterans.....

Response by SSG Todd Halverson made Oct 14 at 2015 3:09 PM

SSG Todd Halverson — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:09:02 -0400

I really don't know why. It may still be the scars from that era and people are just not ready or willing to change how they feel about that war.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Oct 14 at 2015 3:12 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:12:09 -0400

Not yet LTC Ed Ross. I would expect in the next ten years that somebody who served in the Armed Forces of the United States in the Vietnam War will be elected President. However I expect it will be somebody who was relatively junior in the Vietnam War who went on to serve in later Wars or operations through Operation Desert Storm.

Response by LTC Kevin B. made Oct 14 at 2015 3:15 PM

LTC Kevin B. — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:15:18 -0400

Probably because he was swiftboated.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Oct 14 at 2015 3:23 PM

CAPT Kevin B. — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:23:23 -0400

"Nam did a good job of removing the shine off the military pedigree helping a candidate. Subsequent high profile Dumb A things starting with Ollie and being repeated in some form on a periodic news cycle basis, last being Gen Petraeus, so the public is rightfully a touch jaded when it comes to what the military background will or won't do for a President. We Mils tend to like/want one but we're a minority. So I put the military image factor at the neutral point now. The more we muck around with no "wins", I don't expect to see the needle to move to the right at all.

Response by SGT Robert Hawks made Oct 14 at 2015 4:20 PM

SGT Robert Hawks — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:20:10 -0400

John Kerry and John McCain or the only two that have ran and came close just haven't had the right one run

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Oct 14 at 2015 4:21 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:21:08 -0400

Thank you LTC Ed Ross This really is an interesting observation. No, I hadn't ever before thought about the fact that no Vietnam Vet ever was elected President. Now it's going to become an ear worm. I won't be able to stop. Why hasn't one? How many have served in Congress? Did we ever do anything worthwhile? (That was a bit of sarcasm there. Please forgive me.) Maybe, just maybe, we were too busy doing worthwhile things than to become embroiled in national politics. After all, we're told that any American child can grow up to be President. How many can be a veteran? Apparently, not that many...

Response by SGT Mark Stevens made Oct 14 at 2015 4:46 PM

SGT Mark Stevens — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:46:29 -0400

To my knowledge only three have ran for the presidency, John McCain, John Kerry and Jim Webb. Jim Webb only made it as far as an exploratory committee for weather or not to run. That's not a very big pool of vets trying to get into that office.
I think a better question is how many seniors and congressmen were WWII vets before any ran for the presidency?

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Oct 14 at 2015 4:56 PM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:56:43 -0400

Age.

If you look at the Presidents and the Age requirement (35) to be President, it creates a weird sort of issue.

The average age of the Presidents at accession has been 55~. That means that we need a College Grad (22) with about 28-32 years after Vietnam (1955-1976 at the extreme limits) which would make their election year somewhere between 1983 & 2008.

If you look at those election cycles, we had Reagan (WWII) second term, Bush (WWII), Clinton (Vietnam Era, not Vet)x2, GWBush (Vietnam Era)x2.

The following election cycles result in aging veteran population and are creating a "gap." The current President is too young to have served in that conflict, and the most of the others in his "peer group" would be Cold War to Gulf War era vets.

The best way to describe this would be saying that WWII vets occupied the office too long, and knocked out potential Korea & Vietnam vets.

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Oct 14 at 2015 5:02 PM

LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:02:13 -0400

The only ones to run were McCain who ran a bad campaign and Kerry, whom the GOP destroyed, unless my memory is flawed...

BTW, interestingly, when Kerry was running, I saw a Kerry/Edwards button written in Hebrew. In Hebrew the word קרי K-R-Y means one who has a genital emission... a lot of rabbis laugh about that...

Response by SSG Michael Scott made Oct 14 at 2015 7:31 PM

SSG Michael Scott — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 19:31:31 -0400

Yes, I do
When Bill Clinton was president, he could have been, but he went to Canada to avoid the draft. Why would someone would marry a loser. Oh, yeah, Hillary is a loser too.

Response by Cpl Dennis F. made Oct 14 at 2015 10:34 PM

Cpl Dennis F. — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 22:34:48 -0400

No.....in general, we are not joiners. And up until a few years ago we were hated.

Response by SFC Rollie Hubbard made Oct 14 at 2015 11:10 PM

SFC Rollie Hubbard — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 23:10:07 -0400

That is a damn good question.

Response by MAJ Jim Woods made Oct 15 at 2015 12:04 AM

MAJ Jim Woods — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 00:04:13 -0400

Kerry is a poser..... Gore a nut case ...... and McCain (no disrespect for his service time) was just old and a RINO! Nuff Said!

Response by SP5 Richard Maze made Oct 16 at 2015 7:44 PM

SP5 Richard Maze — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 19:44:47 -0400

Gore, Kerry and McCain each got their party's nomination but being a veteran doesn't mean as much when running for political office as it did after World War II.

Response by SFC David Xanten made Oct 19 at 2015 3:03 PM

SFC David Xanten — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 15:03:17 -0400

George W. Bush was a Veteran but didn't serve in RVN. Gore and Kerry were RVN Vets and McCain was a POW and he was shot down over North VietNam but never served in the South.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 5 at 2016 12:10 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 12:10:59 -0400

As I noted below, President Bush Jr. would have counted if he had taken his flying skills downrange instead of taking a year off to work on a political campaign.

Response by MSG Louis Alexander made Feb 13 at 2018 3:43 AM

MSG Louis Alexander — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 03:43:36 -0500

That is odd, but then again what memories do you have of our government during the Vietnam war? Were they supportive or just playing politics at our expense? What Vietnam Veteran would want the office.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made Feb 14 at 2018 10:23 AM

SGM Bill Frazer — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 10:23:29 -0500

OK Sir- 1. Most folks fought 3-5 straight years and the country backed WWII. 2. Vietnam actually lasted almost 18 years from time of 1st advisors under Eisenhower till Saigon/Air units evac- and the country as a whole did not support the war- at least not politically. Few Vietnam vets trust the gov't with good reason, and with the example of folks like Kerry- don't want the hassle.

Response by MSG John Duchesneau made Jul 6 at 2020 1:00 AM

MSG John Duchesneau — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 01:00:23 -0400

Check this out - the last combat veteran elected president was George H.W. Bush in 1988. Since then, the only president (out of the four) who has served in uniform was draft his draft dodging son George W. Bush who was in the Air National Guard for 6 years - most of which he was not even attending drills.

Even worse - in the five elections after 1988 the candidate with the least military experience won the election. In the last two elections - neither major party candidate was a veteran - as is the case in the 2020 election.

1992 - Bush - World War II Combat Veteran. Clinton - draft dodger.
1996 - Dole - World War II Combat Veteran. Clinton - draft dodger.
2000 - Gore - Vietnam in country Veteran. Bush - National Guard.
2004 - Kerry - Silver Star and 3 Purple Hearts. Bush - National Guard.
2008 - McCain - Vietnam POW. Obama - no service.

The bottom line is that the political parties and the public don't care if a candidate is a Veteran.